Jan and the Mysterious Stranger:

A Story about Devil’s Peak

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Illustrated by

Robyn van ZijlRobyn van Zijl

Long, long ago, at the foot of a tall

mountain called Windberg, very close to

Table Mountain there lived a man called Jan

van Hunks.

Jan was a big, friendly man. His favourite

thing to do was to smoke his pipe. He loved

to smoke it every day, sitting in his cozy

little home, puffing out clouds of smoke

that swirled around him like magic.

But Jan’s wife didn’t share his love for his

pipe. "Jan, you smoke too much! I can

hardly breathe with all that smoke inside

the house!" she would say.

So, Jan would smile and say, "Don’t worry,

dear. I’ll go outside to smoke." And off he

would go, walking up the hill to the

mountain's slopes, where the wind would

carry the smoke away into the sky.

One day, while Jan was sitting on the

mountain, happily puffing on his pipe, he

noticed a strange man standing nearby.

The man looked very mysterious – he wore

a dark cloak and held a pipe just like Jan’s.

“Ah, another pipe smoker,” Jan thought.

“Perhaps we can enjoy our pipes together?”

The strange man turned to Jan and said, “I

see you love to smoke your pipe too. But I

bet you can’t smoke as much as I can. I’m

the best pipe smoker in the world!”

Jan, being proud of his pipe-smoking skills,

puffed out his chest. “Oh, really? I can

smoke with the best men! Let’s see who can

make the biggest cloud of smoke.

And so, the two men began to smoke. They puffed

and puffed, each trying to outdo the other. The

smoke grew thicker and thicker, swirling around

them like a storm. Soon, the entire mountain was

covered in smoke, and the wind carried it high into

the sky.

The smoke was so thick that it turned into a huge

cloud, so big that it seemed to cover the whole

mountain, turning the sky into a blanket of fog

and completely covering Table Mountain too.

Jan kept puffing away, determined to win the

contest. After a while, he started to feel very

tired. The strange man didn’t seem tired at all. He

just kept puffing and puffing.

Finally, after what seemed like hours, Jan gave

one last, mighty puff of smoke, just as the strange

man stopped.

“I win!” Jan cried out, feeling proud.

The strange man smiled mysteriously and

said, “You may have won the contest, but I

am not just any man. I am the Devil, and I

will take my leave now.”

With that, the mysterious man vanished,

leaving Jan sitting alone on the mountain.

The smoke slowly began to clear, and Jan

realized something incredible had

happened. The smoke had formed a giant

cloud over the top of the mountain, which

stayed there, floating like a tablecloth,

even on the clearest of days.

The mountain was forever known as Devil’s

Peak, because of the mysterious contest

between Jan van Hunks and the Devil.

Jan returned home, but from that day on,

every time he looked at the mountain, he

remembered the strange contest and the

giant cloud that hung over the peak. He

learned that sometimes, it’s not always wise

to brag or compete too much, for the

consequences could be quite strange – and

very smoky!